Case file · Folklore / legend
Navajo elders and the 1993 'mystery illness'
In May 1993 young, healthy Navajo people in the Four Corners began dying of a sudden lung illness; Diné elders pointed to traditional teachings linking wet years, a big piñon crop and mice to sickness, and the CDC soon traced it to a new hantavirus carried by deer mice.
1993 CE · 35.67, -108.75 · status: official
The account
The press briefly called it the 'Navajo flu', and Navajo people faced stigma and turned-away travellers. Scientists credited elders' knowledge with helping them focus on rodents. The virus was named Sin Nombre ('without name').
The sceptical view
Not a supernatural case but one where oral tradition and science met; it is included for how a 'mystery illness' was framed.